Jupiter boss not ‘panting’ after assets

Former BHP Billiton chief executive Brian Gilbertson says the perception that he is urgently chasing around the globe for coking coal assets to put into his locally listed vehicle, Jupiter Mines, is untrue.

As Jupiter owns a 49 per cent stake in the Tshipi manganese project in South Africa and 100 per cent of the Mount Ida and Mount Mason iron-ore projects in Western Australia, coking coal is the only key steelmaking ingredient not featured in the company’s portfolio.

Mr Gilbertson has openly expressed a desire to add the commodity to Jupiter’s mix of assets. However, speaking from Perth on Wednesday, he said acquisition opportunities were rare.

“Coking coal, as you’re aware, is a much sought after commodity and when the assets do become available, they tend to be very expensive so I would be misleading you if I gave you the impression that we were off panting after them.

“That’s not the case at all and some of the reports that have appeared about what we have recently tried to do have not been based on fact."

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Mr Gilbertson confirmed that he had closely examined a coking coal opportunity for Jupiter at the start of the year, but was unable to take it to “an outcome that made sense".

“It was a specific opportunity," he said. “We looked at it. It didn’t fly so we’re getting on with our projects."

As part of this latest visit to Australia, Mr Gilbertson, who is based in London, attended an extraordinary general meeting to approve the issue of $50 million in new equity to the Pallinghurst co-investors, who own almost 80 per cent of Jupiter, in Perth on Wednesday.

The two resolutions voted on at the meeting were passed without any issue.

This week, Mr Gilbertson took the co-investors to inspect Mt Isa and Mt Mason, as well as rail facilities in Western Australia’s Central Yilgarn region and the port of Esperance.

Jupiter plans to ship iron ore from Mt Ida and Mt Mason through Esperance starting in early 2013.